Chad King gets his first win as a Spartan coach

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

Chad King, new head coach at Ocean Township High School, opened his coaching career as a Spartan with a 10-6 win over Red Bank Regional.

It’s been 24 years since Chad King had a victory as an Ocean Township Spartan. Back in 2000 he was a senior at the high school and an all-star member of the football team. Fast forward 24 years, King is the new head coach of the team.

March 26, the Ocean Township Board of Education appointed King as the position. Don Klein had resigned from Ocean to take the head coaching position at his alma mater; Shore Regional High School.

Read King Story Here

King and his 2024 Spartans opened the season on the road at Red Bank Regional on August 29, for what is known as Week Zero in the schedule. Games are played before students actually start the session. Both teams play in the Shore Conference B North division.

It was not an exciting game to start. The Spartans were struggling in the beginning and their star quarterback, James Sobieski, suffered a slight injury to his shoulder that had him out of the game for a few plays. But once he returned, the Spartans started to settle into their new offensive scheme.

Red Bank Regional had struck first with a touchdown, but missed the extra point. “I knew we needed to get something going and that was to get the ball to Alex,” said King. Alex Staten is a sophomore running back with explosive speed and power.

Staten had two carries for seven yards before blowing the game wide open. He took the handoff from Sobieski and ran outside along the Red Bank Regional sideline and was untouched for an 82-yard score. Staten said that he didn’t see the gap at first, but when he did, he knew he was gone.

Breaking away for an 82-yard touchdown run is sophomore Alex Staten of Ocean Township in the 10-6 win over RBR.

The extra point was good and Ocean now had a narrow 7-6 lead.

Just before the first half ended, Ocean sent out freshman Joey Bercovicz, who nailed a 30-yard field goal giving Ocean the 10-6 lead that would become the final score.

It almost didn’t end happily for King and his Spartans. Red Bank Regional had the ball in the final minutes of play. On a fourth and 22 from their own 42-yard line with 10 seconds to play, Ari Fraser, junior, caught a 50-yard pass and was tackled at the Ocean Township eight-yard line. However, Fraser was tackled inbounds, the Bucs had no timeouts and the game clock expired.

King is thrilled to be back at Ocean. He spent 11 years as assistant coach to Danny George who is in the NJ Coaches Hall of Fame. The past two season, King was head coach at Long Branch. “It’s kind of surreal with all the support from people I played with back in the day and now I’m coaching their children,” said King.

Ocean will host Holmdel, who beat Long Branch 38-32 to open their season, on September 6.

The Spartans have new lights for the stadium which have some cool features that the fans should appreciate.

More photos of this game will be posted at www.Facebook.com/TheLinkSports